HISTORIC ORIGINAL TYPE I PHOTOGRAPH OF JOE ROSENTHAL’S RAISING THE FLAG ON IWO JIMA, TOGETHER WITH THE WARTIME SCRAPBOOK, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND EFFECTS OF SEAMAN FIRST CLASS JOSEPH ANTHONY DAMICO, 133RD U.S. NAVAL CONSTRUCTION BATTALION, WOUNDED IN ACTION AT IWO JIMA

Note: This sale represents one of few recorded occasions in which an original Type I print of Joe Rosenthal’s Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima has been offered publicly at auction. The most recent example, sold by Goldin's on 1 June 2024, realized $103,090. The Type I example offered here is accompanied by 39 additional Type I photographs by Rosenthal documenting Iwo Jima during and immediately after the battle (American servicemen on the island, the scarred volcanic landscape, vehicles and equipment, battlefield dead, and the stark aftermath of one of the most consequential campaigns of the Pacific War). According to family provenance, the Rosenthal photographs were given personally by the photographer to Damico while the latter was recovering in California from wounds sustained during the Iwo Jima campaign.

Provenance: Joseph Anthony Damico, Seaman First Class, U.S. Naval Reserve, 133rd Naval Construction Battalion; By descent through the family; 
Consigned directly by the family of Joseph Anthony Damico (1926–2005). 

An exceptional and historically important Iwo Jima archive belonging to Seaman First Class Joseph Anthony Damico of the 133rd U.S. Naval Construction Battalion, comprising his wartime scrapbook, original photographs, military documents, medals, identification tags, and related effects. At the center of the archive is a remarkable group of original Type I silver gelatin photographs taken by celebrated Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal during and immediately after the Battle of Iwo Jima, including an original print of Rosenthal’s immortal image, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, the most recognizable and consequential photograph in American military history. 

Damico was only eighteen years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on 25 September 1943. He trained with the Seabees at Camp Peary, Virginia, before departing for Hawaii with the 133rd Naval Construction Battalion in May 1944. The battalion remained there until the end of the year, before being assigned to the Iwo Jima invasion force. During Operation Detachment, the 133rd served as shore party in support of the Marines landing on the island on 19 February 1945. Working under extremely difficult conditions and sustained enemy fire, the battalion suffered devastating losses, among the heaviest in the history of the Naval Construction Forces.

Damico was wounded in action on 5 March 1945, two weeks after the initial assault, when he sustained a gunshot wound to his lower right leg, fracturing the bone and necessitating evacuation from the island. His casualty cards, identification tags, medals, and the related published account included here together preserve a compelling record of his service and sacrifice.

Rosenthal’s Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima was taken on 23 February 1945, as six U.S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi. Three of the men pictured would later be killed in the battle. The photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and became the basis for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. No other image has so powerfully shaped the visual memory of American military history.

The lot comprises:

Damico’s wartime scrapbook, leatherette boards, approximately 15 1/4 x 11 1/2 in., 38 pages, containing 40 Type I original silver gelatin photographs of the Battle of Iwo Jima and its aftermath taken by Joe Rosenthal, including an original Type I Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima; 53 newspaper clippings; 9 tipped-in double-sided newspaper pages; a photographic postcard from Camp Peary; 2 original casualty cards and one duplicate casualty card; a recruit identification card; and 2 letters signed W. J. McNicol on official Navy Department letterhead.

Together with a casualty card detailing Damico’s wound; an Air Transport Command cabin identification tag; a patient’s identification tag from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation; 3 additional silver gelatin battlefield photographs; a three-place mounted ribbon bar with American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, and Navy Expeditionary ribbons; an American Campaign Medal with ribbon and ribbon bar; an Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with ribbon and ribbon bar; a U.S. Navy Commendation ribbon bar; a Purple Heart ribbon bar; a U.S. Naval Reserve dog tag stamped:

“DAMICO / JOSEPH / ANTHONY / 250-94-10 / O / USNR”

and two patinated brass mining tags, one from the mining town of Reitz No. 4 and one reading “E / 85 / LOADER / 482.”

Also with: William Bradford Huie. From Omaha to Okinawa: The Story of the Seabees. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1945. 8vo. FIRST EDITION. Damico is identified on page 65 as having been wounded in action at Iwo Jima.

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [World War II, WWII, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, Allied, Axis, George S. Patton, Air Force, USMC, Japan] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards]